And everytime Bollywood has to discover a new paradise to keeps its viewers interested , so this time its Fiji---the island half populated by those denizens of western India called Gujjus , and only half populated by its native population.....

And what about paradise as in candy for the eyes---an attractive woman who reveals her lovely figure in teeny weeny bikinis on the beach and kisses her partner with abandon ??
---Thats Tena Desae ( I hope I got the name right ) , the better half of a couple who have won a free vacation to Fiji ; and the the other half of the couple is Rajeev Khandelwal......

Well , the viewer wants some trouble to break out in this paradise to get the movie going along

And trouble comes along in name of Mr Khan.....( dont we have enough troublemakers by this name already )

This Mr Khan ( played by Paresh Rawal ) gives the couple a tantalizing offer---to play in a reality show called table number 21.
The task seems simple enough---answer 8 questions and do 1 task for each question making a total of 8 tasks....
But the answers to each question must be true---if you lie you die....
And you cant walk out of the show in between---if you want to be free you have to complete the game....

The prize for winning---21 crores

Now if an offer is too good to be true it probably IS too good to be true---obviously the game has a catch that would make the tasks too difficult and the money not worth the risks involved .But the couple is overcome with greed and is ready.....

And as the game unravels the couple is put through physical harassment and mental anguish beyond their wildest imagination.....
And Khan is not what he seems to be---he knows too much about their past lives....

Of course Khan is not a villain---can anyone with this famous surname be anything but a good person if not a hero.....given the current appeasement tendencies of Bollywood and the hold of the mafia based in a certain neighbour of ours on the film industry it would take a brave man to say " His name is Khan and he is a terrorist ( or bad guy at least ) ''.

So who is he ??

And does the harassment the couple goes through remind you of things we participated in during the bygone days ( assuming you are in the thirties like I am ) ??

The film ends with a powerful social message that hits hard with a surprise---and that's the best part of the film.....man , I was impressed by the climax....

Now only if the other parts of the film were as good as the climax---sadly they aren't , and do not match upto the standard of the climax .

Performances wise Paresh Rawal takes the acting honours---these Khans cannot be ignored even if the names are not real ....but the rest of the actors dont meet the standard....

Liberals rule the roost in Bollywood . And their version of liberalism nowadays consists of portraying the very forces that defend the Indian state and on whom the state depends for survival ( like the armed forces for instance ) as villains .

In other countries such a portrayal of the forces that defend the nation as villains would have been instantly clamped down upon . For if such a portrayal is done repeatedly , then the morale of the armed forces would go down ; they would feel let down by their own people and would not be enthusiastic about defending the country anymore .

But in India anything goes....India is a sab chalta hai country where there is no respect for the armed forces and any expression of nationalism is frowned upon by the intellectual classes . An atmosphere of vegetarianism has made Indians weak and effeminate and ready to get themselves trampled upon by anyone who has the chutzpah to do so .

The movie 'Haider' is the product of such an environment . People who are in open rebellion against India in Kashmir are openly shown as heroes in the film . People who are defending the interests of the Indian state ( like Kashmiris who are on India's side ) are shown as villains . People who are against Indian rule in Kashmir fight 'heroically' against all the odds ; they are eulogized as martyrs dying for a just cause . But people who defend India die dog's deaths .

....And the amazing fact is that the censors have passed the film with several cuts ; but they have not had the guts to ban the film entirely .
How could they ?? If they banned the whole movie , then the entire liberal lobby would be up in arms ; their version of freedom consists of allowing anti national forces to voice their dissent and clamp down upon any attempt by any Indian to act tough .

And the even more amazing fact is that there is not a murmur of protest from the common man . Vegetarianism and the pacifism that goes with it have struck such deep roots in our society that it has drained our vitals of any reserves of manliness ; we allow the so called 'liberals' to take charge of our pathetic lives....

There are so many anti national moments in the film that I won't bother to enumerate them . Searching on the internet for these anti national moments in the film yielded results ; I found what I was searching for on 'Deshgujarat' website .

The following is a copy/paste from 'Deshgujarat' website---

Copy/paste---

Quote:

-The film is anti-national.
-The film is against Armed Forces Special Power Act. The film is against India and Pakistan both. The film favors freedom of Kashmir from both India and Pakistan. The film also gives message that while freedom of Kashmir is justified, the use of weapons to achieve freedom is not proper.
-The film portrays Indian Army as unwanted, flirt, human right offender, cruel.
-In one of the first scenes, Indian Army has been shown blowing a house in which militant is hiding and offering Namaz.
-In another scene, Army man has been shown behaving loosely with Kashmiri woman reporter. It was kinda flirting.
-In one scene, Kashmir Police kill militants in custody in a house, and call press to impress Delhi. Pro-Indian Kashmir police man says, “these days even dead militant is worth Rs. 1 lakh.”
-In one scene, Army men are all set to cut private part of a militant suspect believed involved in killing of 20 persons in bomb blast case. Suspect is shouting that he is just a student and not militant.
-The hero kills three persons in this movie. Two of them are Kashmir police’s informer, and one is Kashmir police officer. All of them working for Indian Army. The Hero kills informers with big stones, and police man with bullet of pistol given to him by militants.
-In one scene, Hero Shahid Kapoor is standing in Lal Chowk of Srinagar and shouting: Is paar bhi chahiye azadi, us par bhi chahiye azadi. He says Kashmir wants freedom from both India and Pakistan on both sides of Line of Control.
-In one scene the film shows that Indian Army trained armed group kills terror suspects by throwing them in river from a bridge.
-In one scene in movie they show newspaper heading claiming ’8,000 Kashmiris still missing in Kashmir’.
-In one scene, Heroine Tabbtsum (Tabbu) says: Disappeared people’s wives are called half widows. They have to wait for their men or dead bodies of their men.
-In one scene, during a duologue, the director deliberately shows ‘Go India Go Back’ slogan on a wall in background.
-One of the dialogue in film: Nehru had promised plebiscite in Lal Chowk, but that didn’t happen, the first condition of plebiscite was demilitarization, but that too didn’t happen.
-In one scene, they show a truck carrying dead bodies. In another scene ‘Association of Missing Kashmiri’ has been shown protesting against Indian Army. The Hero of the film is among them.
-In one scene, when Hero reaches military camp with photo copies of his missing father’s picture and inquire about him, an Army man has been shown throwing all the copies in air arrogantly.
-The Hero in one scene says: Entire Kashmir is a prison.
-The Hero compares Armed Forces Special Power Act(AFSPA) as Chutzpa. He sayd Chutzpa is Hibru word.
-In one scene, a lawyer tells missing person’s relative that there has to be FIR in police to save missing person from disappearance.
-One of the dialogue in the film: In Kashmir, there’s God above and Army on the ground. Upar Khuda hai, niche fauj hai.
-In the song, they have placed a black dressed devil’s puppet inside the Sun temple in centre. This Sun temple was destroyed by Islamic invaders in the past. The devil puppet(Hindu Indian military?) in center of the gate of the temple has been shown throwing persons(Kashmiri Muslim) in river symbolically.

Indeed as the site says , the Indian army has been shown killing innocent Kashmiris and throwing their bodies in rivers . Generally it has been shown as not respectful of human rights and responsible for thousands of missing persons ( presumably all innocent but killed ) in the film . Indian rule is shown as a tyranny that all Kashmiris want to escape from .

The director is most probably a 'bleeding heart liberal' whose heart bleeds for those Kashmiris who are subject to regular checks at checkpoints by the Indian army . But the bleeding stops there....the director has no problems with those Kashmiris who resort to terrorism and violence against the state . One would be forgiven if one started believing that the movie was funded by Pakistan....

The story begins with a doctor surreptitiously taking a kashmiri terrorist who has been wounded into his house for treatment instead of handing him over to the army . His sympathies are obviously with the terrorists . But the army gets wind of this and the doctor is arrested while the terrorist is killed by the army by blowing up the doctor's house . Now why would the army act differently ?? The doctor is harboring a terrorist after all .

But no , later the director shows the person who informed the army as the villain . Or rather , it is the villain of the film who informed the army . So the director of the film wants to say that the act of informing the army about a terrorist is an act of villainy which only the villain of the film can do !! Does the director want to say that terrorists ought to be saved and those who inform about people harboring terrorists are bad people ?? Certainly I feel so....

The doctor's son Haider ( played by Shahid Kapoor ) comes back to see his mother openly cavorting with his uncle---and clearly romancing the uncle . Haider is filled with rage and hate . He makes his sympathies clear by calling the town of Anantnag as 'Islamabad' , which is the name given to it by Kashmiri terrorists . Of course , Islamabad is also the capital of Pakistan---so we are given a not to subtle hint of where his real sympathies lie....

The local Kashmiri police officer's daughter ( played by Shraddha Kapoor ) is in love with Haider , but this is opposed by he family who are sided with India . Is it for this perfidy ( of siding with India ) that the family has to die in the end in an orgy of violence ?? ---presumably that is what the director feels should happen to those Kashmiris who side with India in the Kashmir conflict .

A man affiliated with Pakistan backed terrorists ( played by Irfan Khan ) contacts Haider and informs him about his father and about the fact that father wants him to take revenge on his uncle ( played superbly by the redoubtable Kay Kay Menon ) who has been romancing his wife (Haider's mother) behind his back . And a gun is given to him to take revenge....

The uncle has a different story to tell---of Pakistan backed terrorists hatching a plan to make Haider angry and against India . Haider is in the midst of a dilemma as to whom to believe , but his eyes seem maddened by hate for his uncle . And he genuinely becomes a psycho for a while . This part ( of going mad ) is the part where Shahid has acted brilliantly and the film is at it's best .

So who's version of the story is true ??
What happened to Haider's father ??
What is the role of Haider's mother ( played by Tabu ) in all this ??

Watch the movie for the answers if you want to go against my advice...

As the movie moves towards the the climax , all those who sided with India are killed in brutal fashion . Again I have to ask---Is that what the director feels should happen to those who take India's side ??

The director does have solution for Kashmir's demand for Azadi----he feels it should be achieved with gandhian methods ( just like India achieved it from Britain ) rather than violence , for violence and revenge will lead only to more revenge and more killing....

Verdict---The movie is more like an art movie rather than commercial . Not entertaining .
But that is not reason why I asking you not to watch it . One film won't make much difference , but if more films like this are made then the morale of our armed forces will go down---they will feel backstabbed by the very people they are supposed to defend . If those people themselves support films which show Indian army in a bad light , then why should armed forces defend their lives ?? And if we flock to the theaters to watch such films and help the movie makers make more money then the movie makers will be tempted to make more such films . Don't go to see ' what is anti national in the film' . Not recommended .

I haven't watched and don't plan to watch Haider due to its anti-national overtones.

Ek baat aur - ye vegetarianism ke peechhe kyun pade ho? So far in my experience, vegetarian people are more aggressive than non-vegetarians. It is not a rule though but neither is opposite one.

I am vegetarian... have you ever seen me be aggressive So your claim that vegetarian people are more aggressive does not hold water. Now, if you say I am wrong... I will search you... I will seek you... and I will k...........

__________________
-----------------------------------------------

"Hinduism brought a multitude of religions under one roof and survived for eons. Christianity and other religions will need to do the same or perish." - saneless

I am vegetarian... have you ever seen me be aggressive So your claim that vegetarian people are more aggressive does not hold water. Now, if you say I am wrong... I will search you... I will seek you... and I will k...........

Rajjo is the love story of a prostitute---and as expected , it is full of problems for her and the man she loves and marries . But the problems are more the ones created by the director rather than the expected ones . In fact sympathy for the love story pours from the ones who are least expected to be in favour of it---the ones who control the brothel of course . They actually solemnise the marriage between the couple and allow the girl ( who had been sold to the brothel owner in her tender age ) to go !! The movie seems far from real at this point ; why would a brothel owner let go of a girl he has bought without asking for his price ? It is upto the director to prove that he can make a real story beyond this point , and surprisingly he does make us empathise with the love story for a while , failing only at the end .

Paras Arora plays a young boy who comes from a marathi brahmin household . Once on winning a sports event he is taken to the fleshpots of Grant road in Mumbai for seeing a dance by prostitutes . And on seeing the dance by a beautiful girl named Rajjo ( played by Kangana Ranaut ) he is simply mesmerised . To be honest I was mesmerised too....Kangana's exposed belly looks so deliciously delicate , her navel so attractive , her cleavage oh so inviting , her soft back in backless blouse so fair and lovely , and her movements while dancing so lascivious , that I kept on looking at her slim white body that is so perfect for dancing....

With the brothel owner being paid to allow him to meet Rajjo , Paras strikes a rapport with her and soon it develops into love . Encouraged by a politician's speech asking young men to come forward to marry sex workers and liberate them from their profession , Paras decides to marry Rajjo especially because the politician promises a job and a house for doing so . But the politician's promises are false , and his own parents predictably throw him out of his house for marrying a prostitute . To make things worse , another politician and his thugs are after Rajjo because that politician ( Prakash Raj ) lusts for her . Even though the couple flees away to a village , the politician and his goons rentlessly harass them there . The brothel where Rajjo grew up also is destroyed by property developers...in short trouble strikes everywhere . How the couple manage to extricate themselves out of this forms the rest of the story .

Paras Arora really looks innocent enough to not know the consequences of marrying a whore . But it is Kangana whose charms as Rajjo are delectable enough to make us watch the movie . Many actors in the movie are marathi because the director is marathi . But the ending is disappointing , even though the saga of the couple does hold out interest midway in the movie . Colours of the movie are good , and songs are okay . The highlight of the movie are the three dances by Kangana in sexy clothes .

The movie majorly flopped at the box office , but interestingly scored at the box office at one theatre even after other theatres had stopped showing it . That theatre was situated in Falkland road , the heart of Mumbai's red light district . Even in failure , the movie was honoured by the people it depicts---some cold satisfaction for the makers of the movie....

'The only thing that I have liked from Pakistan'---singer Nazia Hassan and Zoheb Hassan.....and I grew up listening to their songs , especially from the movie 'Star' . When one cassette ( it was the era of music cassettes ) broke down from overuse , I forced my father to buy another one...and in the end the cassettes stopped being available in music shops , to my eternal chagrin...
So when the era of the internet came to my home , the first thing I searched was the songs of 'Star' on youtube...and imagine my joy when I found them...just listened to them over and over again...my childhood fascination with glamour started with the songs---because they were among the first hindi pop songs , some of them fit to be listened to in discos and nightclubs....

But the movie itself was another thing ; it was a major flop at the box office...the only thing that was worth remembering was the songs....
However , the movie is available on youtube....and it being available on youtube , one day I was bound to see it....and as I was bound to see it , I was bound to review it....so here it is , the review....

Once you see the movie , it is easy to understand why it was such a flop . While the story has some substance , it is hampered by bad direction , sloppy editing , bad dialogues and bad acting . The fights feel not altogether badly shown , but that is because you compare with the horrible choreography when dancing on the songs . And the dancing is truly horrible . Some of the dance moves look like P T exercises !! Left right up down---the hands go and so do the faces....is this really dancing ? Totally laughable....

The story is that of a young man ( Kumar Gaurav ) obsessed with music , so much so that he dreams of being the next Elvis Presley . He is kicked out from a job because he is more interested in listening to music on his walkman ( yeah , it was era of walkmans ) rather than working . He tries to get a job as singer at a disco called Club 54 , but is rebuffed by the arrogant owner ( Saeed Jaffrey ) . Then he goes to Charlie's disco and is mesmerised by the singing of the singer there ( Rati Agnihotri ) . Not surprising , because she is singing 'Boom Boom' playbacked by Nazia Hassan , one of my all time favourite songs . Rati introduces him to Charlie , the owner of the disco . His singing in turn mesmerises them both ( he sings 'Ooie Ooie' , another likable song sung by Zoheb Hassan ) , and he lands a job as singer in the disco .

As Kumar Gaurav's singing attracts crowds in the hordes , so does the popularity of Charlie's disco go up , and the moolah begins to roll in Kumar's pockets . His parents are not happy with his singing in clubs , because it was 1982 and India was mired in the depths of socialism ; clubs and discos were considered symbols of the capitalistic west and it's westernization . But Kumar's brother ( Raj Kiran ) supports him .

But there is another danger lurking , and that is the growing jealousy of the owner of club 54 ; his disco is running half empty because everyone is flocking to Charlie's for Kumar's singing . Saeed tries to entice Kumar to his disco with greater pay , but Kumar refuses . So Saeed has Kumar beaten up and his voice choked . But Raj Kiran takes revenge on those who beat his brother by soundly trashing them one by one . Rati and Raj come close in all this and fall in love , shattering Kumar who is in love with Rati .

But they all have to unite when Saeed's men come together to attack Raj and he has to be hospitalised ; this happening on the very day Kumar has to sing on national television , something that will make him what he dreamt of being---a Star what else...and get the love of another girl who has been angling for him---Padmini Kolhapure , who is more of an afterthought in the film as her role is very small .

In the midst of all the juvenile direction , I found myself lost once again in the songs....and it seems I will never tire of listening to them again and again....it is as if in the midst of all the socialism in my childhood I was secretly dreaming of a capitalistic liberation !! of westernisation !! of dancing with beautiful babes in the discos and nightclubs !! of grooving to rock and pop music !!...happily , my dreams came true after I grew up....

However the movie is rank bad , you have to admit that....but as I saw it for my first and only time , I was on a trip of nostalgia....and thanking music director Biddu for all the music !!

Liberals rule the roost in Bollywood . And their version of liberalism nowadays consists of portraying the very forces that defend the Indian state and on whom the state depends for survival ( like the armed forces for instance ) as villains .

In other countries such a portrayal of the forces that defend the nation as villains would have been instantly clamped down upon . For if such a portrayal is done repeatedly , then the morale of the armed forces would go down ; they would feel let down by their own people and would not be enthusiastic about defending the country anymore .

But in India anything goes....India is a sab chalta hai country where there is no respect for the armed forces and any expression of nationalism is frowned upon by the intellectual classes . An atmosphere of vegetarianism has made Indians weak and effeminate and ready to get themselves trampled upon by anyone who has the chutzpah to do so .

The movie 'Haider' is the product of such an environment . People who are in open rebellion against India in Kashmir are openly shown as heroes in the film . People who are defending the interests of the Indian state ( like Kashmiris who are on India's side ) are shown as villains . People who are against Indian rule in Kashmir fight 'heroically' against all the odds ; they are eulogized as martyrs dying for a just cause . But people who defend India die dog's deaths .

....And the amazing fact is that the censors have passed the film with several cuts ; but they have not had the guts to ban the film entirely .
How could they ?? If they banned the whole movie , then the entire liberal lobby would be up in arms ; their version of freedom consists of allowing anti national forces to voice their dissent and clamp down upon any attempt by any Indian to act tough .

And the even more amazing fact is that there is not a murmur of protest from the common man . Vegetarianism and the pacifism that goes with it have struck such deep roots in our society that it has drained our vitals of any reserves of manliness ; we allow the so called 'liberals' to take charge of our pathetic lives....

There are so many anti national moments in the film that I won't bother to enumerate them . Searching on the internet for these anti national moments in the film yielded results ; I found what I was searching for on 'Deshgujarat' website .

The following is a copy/paste from 'Deshgujarat' website---

Copy/paste---

Indeed as the site says , the Indian army has been shown killing innocent Kashmiris and throwing their bodies in rivers . Generally it has been shown as not respectful of human rights and responsible for thousands of missing persons ( presumably all innocent but killed ) in the film . Indian rule is shown as a tyranny that all Kashmiris want to escape from .

The director is most probably a 'bleeding heart liberal' whose heart bleeds for those Kashmiris who are subject to regular checks at checkpoints by the Indian army . But the bleeding stops there....the director has no problems with those Kashmiris who resort to terrorism and violence against the state . One would be forgiven if one started believing that the movie was funded by Pakistan....

The story begins with a doctor surreptitiously taking a kashmiri terrorist who has been wounded into his house for treatment instead of handing him over to the army . His sympathies are obviously with the terrorists . But the army gets wind of this and the doctor is arrested while the terrorist is killed by the army by blowing up the doctor's house . Now why would the army act differently ?? The doctor is harboring a terrorist after all .

But no , later the director shows the person who informed the army as the villain . Or rather , it is the villain of the film who informed the army . So the director of the film wants to say that the act of informing the army about a terrorist is an act of villainy which only the villain of the film can do !! Does the director want to say that terrorists ought to be saved and those who inform about people harboring terrorists are bad people ?? Certainly I feel so....

The doctor's son Haider ( played by Shahid Kapoor ) comes back to see his mother openly cavorting with his uncle---and clearly romancing the uncle . Haider is filled with rage and hate . He makes his sympathies clear by calling the town of Anantnag as 'Islamabad' , which is the name given to it by Kashmiri terrorists . Of course , Islamabad is also the capital of Pakistan---so we are given a not to subtle hint of where his real sympathies lie....

The local Kashmiri police officer's daughter ( played by Shraddha Kapoor ) is in love with Haider , but this is opposed by he family who are sided with India . Is it for this perfidy ( of siding with India ) that the family has to die in the end in an orgy of violence ?? ---presumably that is what the director feels should happen to those Kashmiris who side with India in the Kashmir conflict .

A man affiliated with Pakistan backed terrorists ( played by Irfan Khan ) contacts Haider and informs him about his father and about the fact that father wants him to take revenge on his uncle ( played superbly by the redoubtable Kay Kay Menon ) who has been romancing his wife (Haider's mother) behind his back . And a gun is given to him to take revenge....

The uncle has a different story to tell---of Pakistan backed terrorists hatching a plan to make Haider angry and against India . Haider is in the midst of a dilemma as to whom to believe , but his eyes seem maddened by hate for his uncle . And he genuinely becomes a psycho for a while . This part ( of going mad ) is the part where Shahid has acted brilliantly and the film is at it's best .

So who's version of the story is true ??
What happened to Haider's father ??
What is the role of Haider's mother ( played by Tabu ) in all this ??

Watch the movie for the answers if you want to go against my advice...

As the movie moves towards the the climax , all those who sided with India are killed in brutal fashion . Again I have to ask---Is that what the director feels should happen to those who take India's side ??

The director does have solution for Kashmir's demand for Azadi----he feels it should be achieved with gandhian methods ( just like India achieved it from Britain ) rather than violence , for violence and revenge will lead only to more revenge and more killing....

Verdict---The movie is more like an art movie rather than commercial . Not entertaining .
But that is not reason why I asking you not to watch it . One film won't make much difference , but if more films like this are made then the morale of our armed forces will go down---they will feel backstabbed by the very people they are supposed to defend . If those people themselves support films which show Indian army in a bad light , then why should armed forces defend their lives ?? And if we flock to the theaters to watch such films and help the movie makers make more money then the movie makers will be tempted to make more such films . Don't go to see ' what is anti national in the film' . Not recommended .

Picked up Haider DVD from the library and finished it just now.

I thought it would be another one in the category 'movies i like but do not agree with', but this is something com[licated.

Reactions time wise -
after 30 mins - It actually shows army in good light and is not Anti India - Ehat was the fuss about?
after 1 hour - It is a bit anti India, but that is the reality.
after 1.5 hours - It is like Arundhati Roy or aome PTV speaking UN resolution, Azadi, etc.
At the end - Director, characters, everyone is confused and the movie is just dragging for the last 1 hour.

I had the same question as Docji - How TF did the censors pass this.

__________________
This is quite a game, politics. There are no permanent enemies, and no permanent friends,only permanent interests. - Some Firang

I saw Haider at a night, ( 11 PM ) once,... and was not somehow prepared for that kind of sorry and sorrow subject,.... and my mind and brain was full of shok, glaani, Ranj and gila,...

I had expected movie a bit different, but it was too sensitive and family-life disgust and sorrow-subject matters, woven very closely and in a touching way... enough to dig teh layers of our own family lifes,...that filled me with tension and pressure and loads of unwanted own sorrows n' worries,...

It was a bad mood / bad time suit for a movie of that kind,... which I had expected a different kind,.... and got stuck at a bad and inappropriate time...

Arshad Warsi: 'Irada' is an eco-thriller that ventures into the whodunit space

Ruchi Kaushal | TNN | Updated: Feb 16, 2017, 06.42 PM IST

Arshad Warsi is back as a quirky NIA officer in the eco-thriller 'Irada'. He is seen sharing screen space with Naseeruddin Shah again. The actor is finally working in a serious film after a long time. The dancer-turned-actor exclusively spoke to timesofindia.com about the film and much more. Excerpts from the interview:

You are returning with your 'Dedh Ishqiya' co-star Naseeruddin Shah in 'Irada'. How do you bond together?
Naseer is a great actor, co-star and a very dear friend whom I am very fond of. It's a pleasure working with him.

Your last two films were comedies. 'Irada' is a thriller. So what made you give a bid to this one?
I don't see a film as comedy or thriller or any other genre. If I like the script, I say yes, what genre it doesn't bother me. Another aspect is that I also think that will people want to see this?

We know you as a comic actor and see less of you in a serious role?
Because less serious films are offered to me. It's not just me. Eight out of ten films being made are comedies. Even the serious films have comedy in them. People like comedy films. It's a safer bet.

Which genre according to you is the most difficult one?
The genre doesn't scare me. The problem is that comedy is very tiring. It exhausts the hell out of me. Serious role is not tiring. Comedy is about jumping around, it's faster, louder and precision is very important. Your reply and comic timing got to be right. It tires you by the end of the day. On the other hand, there are no issues with serious acting. Like in this film, just sitting at ease with lovely bonfire and chatting. I can do it all day over and over again.

'Irada' is an eco-thriller.
It has a good tagline: Truth lies beneath the surface. 'Irada' is a socially relevant thing. It talks about something we are aware of but don't really care too much i.e. pesticides, reverse boring and how it causes cancer and other diseases. Now if you make a film just about this, it becomes very boring. You don't want to see it and rather go to a hospital then go to a theatre. The beauty is, Aparnaa has very nicely made it into a thriller. It ventures into a completely different aspect of the 'whodunit' space. There are investigations, kidnapping, murder, crime. This combo becomes an eco-thriller.

Despite being a thriller, your character does have comic shades.
I don't like boring characters. Where you have a film where all characters are so grim and everyone have problems in their lives, my character is the only guy who doesn't belong to that area. He has come from outside and doesn't live in that place where everything is so dark. His sensibility is different, has a different point of view and is far more happier. He is just quirk. I love to play a character which people enjoy watching. He is disheartened by the way the system works. He has kind of given up that it's pointless to work seriously, do the investigation, catch the bad guy and then one phone call from the politician and that guy is free. He has given up on the way things work. But when he comes to the place, it changes him and now he can't get himself to disconnect.

You have spent many years in the industry. But director Aparnaa is very new as she makes her directorial debut with this one. So how was it working with her?
Most of these people who are new and young directors are so talented. I love working with them, they have a fire in their belly and are raring to go. In fact, I have worked with many new directors.

So were you lending any advice to her?
No, not really. As an actor you sit and discuss and talk about the character. There is a little back and forth as such.

Is the film releasing in Pakistan?
I think so as this is what I have been told.

Will we ever get to see you as a choreographer or a dancer?
I don't think it's going to happen. I think the only way I can do what I want to do is by probably doing a Hindi or English musical.